The Gamble
by Shira Lansys
Summary: When the trio are imprisoned in the Malfoy Manor, Draco makes a split second decision that could change everything. He just hopes he hasn't gambled on the wrong player. Drarry pre-slash.


She's not the first person Draco has heard tortured. Many, many times before, high-pitched screams have echoed throughout the manor, accompanied by his Aunt Bellatrix's chilling laughter. Some people will give in within a few minutes, too weak of mind to last any longer. They'd kill their own mother just to stop the pain. Others will try to be stronger, try to endure the torture and hold their pain within themselves, not giving the Bellatrix the satisfaction of hearing how much it hurts.

They all cry out in the end.

Crying out is just the first phase. Then comes the confession, the truth-telling, the blabbering of nonsense, when it all becomes too much to bear and they just want it to end. At that point, not even the secret the victim is holding is worth suffering another moment of the agony. The spill all, thinking that it will be over, that they'll be allowed to crawl like a wounded animal into some dungeon where they can lick their wounds in the darkness.

They're wrong.

Because Bellatrix will keep going. Not because there's anything more to get out of the person being tortured, but because she _likes _it. Because she _enjoys _making people scream in pain and beg for her mercy.

If the victim is lucky, she'll get bored and finish them swiftly. If not… well, it's those times that Draco must retreat to his bedroom, block his ears and try not to vomit in disgust.

He thinks for the hundredth time that perhaps he isn't cut out to be a Death Eater.

It's even worse this time, because it's someone he _knows. _Of course, he'd heard Lovegood being tortured, but he knew she'd be okay in the end. She was too much of a valuable hostage to waste by killing her or driving her mad – well, Draco corrected himself, madder than she already was. To be honest, he'd wondered if they'd even know whether or not they'd gone too far if one day they did drive her to insanity. She talked the most ridiculous jibberish anyway.

But Granger – she has no immunity. She is going to die, if she is lucky. If she isn't, then she'll be broken forever. And even though Draco had hated her at school, even though she's a mudblood, he finds that her screams are the worst. He _knows _her. He'd gone to school with her for six years. He'd disliked her and competed with her. And she is going to die at his family's hands.

He'd never, ever wanted that.

He steps backwards, away from the wall, but his legs are weak and he stumbles. Using the wall to support himself, he meets his mother's curious eyes. "I'll be in my room," he mutters. "This could take all night."

She nods, the hardness of her face not detracting from the understanding in her eyes. She isn't like her husband, Draco knows. She is like him. She's too far into the Death Eaters to back out now, but she's never wanted this. Death Eaters serve for life, though; there is no escape. So she wears indifference as a mask, and hopes no one cares to look behind it.

She's stronger than he is, he thinks. In so many ways.

He keeps his head down as he leaves the room, but once he's closed the door, his feet turn right rather than left. Almost without making up his mind, he begins to walk away from his bedroom – and towards the cellar.

* * *

"Piss off, Malfoy," Weasley hisses upon seeing him. Draco could have rolled his eyes, if the situation wasn't so dire.

He quickly checks behind him; it wouldn't do for him to be caught at this stage. His mouth is dry with fear. Turning back to the prisoners, he murmurs, in the lowest voice he can manage, "I'm here to free you." He looks at Weasley and adds, "And I'll rescue your girlfriend, too. On one condition."

He watches Weasley weigh it up in his head. It takes only a few seconds, but the severity of the situation is pressing on Draco's mind and it makes it feel like hours. Finally, Weasley suspiciously asks, "What?"

This would be the deciding factor. This would be the hardest part. Would they ever agree to the terms that Draco would ask of them? Hopefully they are desperate enough.

"That you take me with you," Draco replies.

* * *

He'd thought they'd take more convincing. Perhaps they would have, if Granger's screams hadn't been echoing through the Manor as they hurried to a decision. "Fine," Potter says, a little frantically, "But you have to get them out, too." He gestures behind him, to where Lovegood, Thomas, the goblin and Mr Ollivander are standing. Draco's mind whirrs; is it possible to rescue them all? He hadn't bargained on that.

"I can apparate them somewhere safe," Draco says eventually. "The wards won't allow you to leave on your own, but anyone who can apparate into the manor can take people using side-along apparition. Where can we go?"

"Shell Cottage," Weasley says instantaneously. "My brother's house."

Draco shoots him an annoyed look. "I don't know where that is, do I?" he snaps. "I'll have to take you to somewhere I know. Once you're there, you can take us to wherever it is you want to be."

"Alright," Potter interrupts, eager to get the conversation moving. "Can you take four people at once?"

"No," Draco says. "I could take two, though." It's a lot harder to take another person with you when apparating, and the more people there are, the more difficult it becomes.

"That'll require two trips," Weasley points out.

This time, Draco does roll his eyes. "Good counting," he says sarcastically. "I see six years of Hogwarts education wasn't wasted on you."

Weasley turns red and opens his mouth to retaliate, but Potter interrupts once more. "Can you get us our wands?" he asks Draco quickly. "That way, even if they hear us, Ron and I can hold them off."

"I can get you _some_ wands," Draco says doubtfully. "We keep the ones of prisoners in a study on the next floor."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Weasley hisses. "Go and get them!"

He would have liked to refuse, to show Weasley that he isn't about to be commanded around by the likes of him, but at that moment, Granger screams again, and he realises that the reason his two year mates are on tenterhooks is because time is probably running short. Instead of arguing, he does as he is bid – and grabs a few extra wands for good measure, which he shoves in the hands of the other four prisoners after unlocking the cellar. He hands two to Potter and Weasley, and then he grabs Olivander's and Lovegood's wrists and apparates.

They arrive in a small meadow on top of a hill that you can almost see from the manor. Draco had come here to practice his flying, before the Dark Lord had come back and the world had turned upside down. He barely has time to see it, before he lets go and is apparating once more, back to the manor.

Doing two apparitions in quick succession makes him dizzy, and he's slightly slower when he grabs for Thomas and the goblin. He can hear only silence from above them, which means that Bellatrix must have heard the crack of him disapparating. Any moment now someone will come rushing down. He hopes Potter and Weasley will be more than a match for them.

He disapparates to the field once more, pausing only to regain his senses and tell the four of them to make a run for it if no one's come for them in half an hour, and then he's back in the manor.

He thinks he might have overdone it when lights flash before his eyes upon his reappearance, but then he realises that it is just Potter and Weasley disarming two snatchers. He has to prop himself up against a wall to keep on his feet and waits for his head to stop spinning.

It's not until then that he realises one of the snatchers isn't a snatcher, but Wormtail, and that both he and his accomplice had charged at the two Gryffindors when their wands were snatched from their grasp. Potter and Weasley must have both been taken off guard by this, and both drop the wands they are holding as hands close around each of their throats.

Draco pushes himself away from the wall, reaching inside his robes for his wand (that he really should have had ready, he thinks belatedly). He manages to gasp out "Stupefy!" and stuns Weasley's opponent. He turns to do the same to Wormtail, but is surprised by the sight that greets him.

He doesn't know how Potter has managed it, but somehow he has wandlessly enchanted Pettigrew's hand to strangle its owner. The rat-like man is writhing on the floor at Potter's feet – Potter, who has snatched up the fallen wands and is already beginning to charge at the door.

Weasley does the same, and Draco follows them, but not before glancing back at the pitiful figure that Wormtail makes. He hadn't wanted this, he thinks to himself. He hadn't wanted anyone to die. The whole idea was to _save _lives. But he doesn't know how to stop the silver hand from choking the Death Eater, so he has no choice but to leave him there, dying.

By the time he reaches Potter and Weasley, a fierce battle is raging. For some reason, Potter is clutching at a sword, but Draco doesn't take the time to wonder why. Immediately he rushes to Granger's side, only to find that he can't apparate away because Potter and Weasley are still duelling various members of his family. Unsure of what to do, he casts the first spell that comes into his mind. "_Accio_ Potter and Weasley!"

The pair are wrenched backwards, towards him, and Draco finds he wasn't totally prepared for the consequences of his spell. They hit him so hard that he collapses back onto Granger, and it's not until this point that he realises what he'd failed to take into account – he'd have to apparate all three of them out of there.

The duelling stops, and Bellatrix looks at Draco with confusion written all over her face. "Draco?" she asks. "What are you doing?"

What _is _he doing? he wonders for the first time. He feels no loyalty towards the three Gryffindors he's rescuing. He doesn't believe in what they're fighting for. He just feels a sense of disgust in the methods the Death Eaters use – and he has a gut feeling that Potter isn't going to be as easy to kill as the Dark Lord thinks he is.

He's taking a chance, he realises. He's placing all his bets on Potter, and hoping he won't be let down.

"I'm gambling," he tells his aunt. And then he disapparates.

* * *

The rest of that day will be a blur in Draco's memory, when he thinks about it later. He'll remember Weasley apparating them two at a time to a cottage by the sea, where a scarred man and – to Draco's amazement – Fleur Delacour greets them and hastens them inside. They're both obviously surprised to see such a motley crew, most especially Draco himself, who's a known Death Eater. Despite this, he's treated with politeness and hospitality, which he hates. He's beginning to feel the prickling sensation that he doesn't deserve it.

He helps Fleur tend to the other's wounds; Granger isn't the only one who was injured while held captive. There's a strange moment when he's sent out of the room so Potter can talk to Olivander, but Draco just assumes that the trio are planning the next stages of their rebellion.

When Potter leaves the room, Draco is waiting for him, leaning casually up against the wall like he's lived there all his life. "So where to next?" he asks the boy as he leaves.

Potter blinks in surprise. "What do you mean?" he asks.

"Where are we going next? I assume we aren't going to hide in this cottage until the war ends of its own accord."

"No, I'm not," Potter says suspiciously. "But there is no 'we', Malfoy. You're not coming with us."

"Yes I am," Draco insists. He's not surprised by Potter's refusal; he'd been expecting something of the sort. "That was the deal. I get you out of the Manor, and you take me with you."

Potter seems appalled by this idea. "Yes, take you with us in _our escape_. Not take you with us _forever_!"

"Potter, if I wanted to escape, I could have done it any time – a lot more easily and effectively than I did when I chose to take all seven of you with me."

"Then why'd you take us?" Potter demands.

"Because you are my best chance of survival."

"Malfoy, if you knew what we're doing, you would _not _be saying that. You-Know-Who himself is personally coming after us. We are your _worst _chance of surviving."

Draco shakes his head slowly. "I don't think so," he says, choosing his words carefully. "You're the most wanted person in Britain, you know – and yet you haven't been captured and locked up or killed, unlike hundreds of minor refugees the ministry just keeps rounding up. You must be doing something right."

"Yeah, we've been in hiding," Potter says. "And we were captured remember."

"I got you out, though," Draco points out.

"Well, we won't be safe after today. We're about to break into Gringotts."

Draco has nothing to say to that. He fears he may have done a slight imitation of a fish.

Potter smiles at his silence – and his shocked expression. "I thought that might dampen your enthusiasm." He turns away, and Draco finds his voice.

"I still want to come!" he calls after him. Harry turns around in surprise and raises one eyebrow sceptically.

"We're breaking into your aunt's vault," he says. "We probably won't come out alive. In fact, it's almost a guarantee that we'll be captured."

"You seem to be hard to kill, Potter," Draco replies. "I've already thrown my lot in with you. It's too late to back out now."

"We've got no way of hiding you," Harry argues. It is clear he'd expected Draco to change his mind at the word "Gringotts". "You'll get us caught."

"You're breaking into my aunt's vault. It seems being myself is the perfect cover."

"You're a wanted fugitive now. Being you is not a good idea."

"The goblins won't know that I'm a criminal."

Harry looks at him as though sizing him up. "If you come with us, there's no going back," he warns. "If we're caught, you'll be thrown in Azkaban."

"I knew that from the moment I rescued you," Draco points out. "So tell me. When do we leave?"

* * *

**Authors Note: This is a oneshot, but I will probably write a sequel to this. If you take the time to favourite this story, or add it to your alerts, please spare the time to write a few words of review. I love feedback!**


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